Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-07-09
OUR MEXICAN LETTER.

Wealthy Amercans--Attemp ss HAii-
 ures in the Past.-Imperative Necessity
 of the Work.
 CITY OF MEXICO, June 2lst, 1887.
 EDITOR CIrIzES:-The excitement of the hour in Me1ico's capital IS the pro posed drainage of the valley, by a syndicate of Ohio capitalists. For several months negotiations have been going on between the Bucyrus (0hio) construction company and three wealthy gentlemen of Cleveland, Messrs. DsnIel F. Eels. Henry c. Rouse, and w. H. Harris. Some time ago MT. Rouse came here and held consultations with the government authorities of Mexico. President DiaZ and bis cabinet were favorsbly disposed 10 the scheme, but il was necessary that Legislative sc- ton be taken in the matter. Having been duly considered by both houses ot congress the government hss now ratified the contract, and on the llsh instant Il was duly signed, sealed and delivered.
 No wonder the cItIzens are excited. VI hat has been sgitsted at frequent in- tervals during the last four or five cen turies, has come down to the simple fact that the valley must be drained m some way or the great City of Mexico cannot longer exist. But itis gigantic under taking, which has been eagerly siudIed and carefully planned, by Aztecs, Span iards, Mexican, Europeans and Ameri- lcsps, whose attempts, after spending millions of dollars, have all ignomIn iously failed. Governments, priests and private individuals have lavished their money upon the schemes proposed bY engineers and scientists toward the de- sired end, but as yet absolutely nothing has been accomplished. It must be re mem bered that the valley of Mexico is a basin. with
 So OUTLET WHATEVER FOR THE WATER, Surrounded by & mountain wall from one to five thousand feet high. Authen- tic history traces the occupation of this basin back to the year 700. The City of Mexico WAS founoed upon a part of the old bed of Lake Texooco, as early as 1927, and m all that time has never been draIned. At the time of the Spanish conquest, Gran TenOchtitlsn, as the capital was then called, occupied a small Island In the lake. connected with tne main land by great csusewsys. composed of stone and earth, constructed through the lake. primarily to prevent the flood ing of the city by the overfiows of the Cusntitlan river. One causeway, con meeting Mediodis with the city, Was seven miles long, another (runniBg westward to Tlscopsn) was two miles ID length; the third, running north, three miles, and slI were wide enough tO per nit ten men on horseback to ride abreast. The circuit of the clty measured nine miles, and the number of houses was about 10000, all literally swarmibg with people. Monstrous dykes kept the water out of the city, canals were com mon in all parts of the town, and all business of importance was conducted by the aid of boats. ThTorgh the priu- cipsl streets, which were wider and straighter than now, canals were cut. leaving a broad passage way for pedes- trisns on either side.
 After all these centuries of constant occupancy, Te1cooo has dwindlsd away to comparative nothingness; but any where within and around the old town water may be struck at depth of only two or three feet. proving that the ground is practically
 SOAKED WITH SEWERAGE,
 All the lakes within the basin are higher thsn the city, excep. 1 excoco, which IS two and half feet lower, The higher lakes drain into the lower, and so does every sewer of the city. causing frequent overfiows, which flood the cspI- tai sometimes to the depth of several feet. The constant reoccurrence of lorg lines of green scummed ditches on the borders of the city no doubt assist the cause above mentioned m making the death-rste bigher here than anywhere else m North America, averaging l5UU per month to its population of 330OJO! Nothing but the raritied condition of the atmosphere at this altitude, (735O feet above the seal prevents it from be- ing the constant theatre of fsightful pestilence. The plain fact IS that Lake Texcoco Is nothing more than the ac- cumulated filth of five hundred years, Its waters are so putrid that only the lowest forms of life can exist, and fishes are rolling on its banks by thousands. Its pentilentisl odors, waited by every breeze over the doomed city. are mskiu z a vast charnel-house of lovely ADahusc. whIth will soon become a literal valley of the dead unless engineering skill can save it. Every year adds to its Rccumu- lated rottenness and sends the death rate up the scale.
 But how tO get the water out IS the momentuous questioD,-whether by tuu- nel, by huge siphoD. or by evaporation, the latter scheme has been proved prac- ticslly mpos5ible-and so in fact, have the other two. Let us look briefly at some of the plans of the past, for this oldest and most important hydraulic work in the new world has been studied in every aspect by the wiseacres of five centuries. When the Spanisrds arrived here, just 36S years ago they found that the drainage question had already oc- cupied the attention of bsrbipe monsrchs wbo had made great cuts through the valley.
 About the year 16OO, after sn euorm- ous inundatIon, a celebrated Spanish engineer Enrique Martinez, proposed to open a cut from Lake l excoco to Boveds Real, giving fall of 2,000 feet, but after long consideration the plan was reyect- ed-so says Humboldt-becsuse 1t was believed, on the authority If the Rn- cienis, that current should have fall of at least One-half metre in a hundred. The Viceroys who ruled Mexico during THE SECOND HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH
 CENTURY
 continued the canal north begun by the earlier Aztecs, under many difficulties, resulting in nothing but the sborilve cut of NsohistODgs, through which the MeIlcan Central railroad now runs. Up to the beginning of the 17th century over six millions of dollars had been sunk in truitless undertakings and thou sands of lives had been sacrificed. This is not incrediable when we reflect that human lIfe was held cheap iu those days, that during the first year 150O0 Indians worked necessarily on tbe cut and that afterwards for loo years the work was controlled by the Franciscan monks.
 In 1929, disheartened by its non-suc- cess, and alarmed by the great Inunda- ton of thst year. proposed to abandon the old site aud build s new cIty st the foot of the mountains. What pity that the Spsniards did not carry out their wise resolve, then the Mexican capital, in this same historic valley. would have occupied ground high enough to afford